Orphan Wolf Sledder
by Werewolf of Suburbia
Summary: [Snow Dogs] Well, Jack and Ted are having issues, Ted's gone home and Jack's running his last race. Neither aware that it's not just a photo that'll reunite father and son. It's an wolf raised orphan the entire town hates and her ragtag dog team....


Hi! I decided to write this after seeing Snow Dogs on the Disney Channel. It started out like a original story, but then it changed when I added Jack in, and became a Snow Dogs fanfic. If you DO review, please be nice. I have NO experience in Disney fanfiction, let alone Snow Dogs. It'll follow the movie, basically, although we got an original character intruding in on it. And if I change something, please let me know and what I did wrong, as I've only really ever seen it on TV, but I remember the gist of it, even if I don't remember all the lines and particulars of the sets. Thanks! Amber

General Disclaimer: Let's see here. I'm not rich, I don't own a 1980s Proud Heart Cat, I don't not run a multi-million dollar and more company, and I can't send my demonic Satan-Born sister into the most guarded insane asylum ever built. What does all mean? Simple. It means I don't own anything in this story save my own character, dogs, and plot. Therefore, please don't have me executed, 'kay? Although I know of another girl living with me that sorely needs it and give us all peace……

Note: I am only putting that up once. If you don't get it the first time, then you must be stupid or something. Comprehendo?

It was a beautiful day for a competition, as the racers for the second biggest sled dog race got their dogs and sleds ready. Starting from a remote town in Alaska, it would circle the wilderness and end at the town once more. Many people were racing. A famous Frenchman musher, several more well-known mushers who made their homes in the town. Then there was the orphan.

Amabuq-tiguaq, or wolf-child roughly translated from the town's once native language, was 17 years old and not very well liked, despite being well known. She had stumbled into town one night at the age of 9 or 10, and stuck around ever since. She was a tall child and very lean, half from muscle and the other from starvation-caused skinny-ness. She had long hair, and it was very dirty. She was in fact, very dirty. She had no access to bath water, so it was expected. She also didn't live in the cleanest of conditions, although no one in town really knew where she lived.

Her eyes are what earned her name though. Sea-green in color, they gleamed in the sunlight, and bespoke of an intelligence and wisdom not human. They were wolf eyes. Thus her name. Amabuq, or wolf, and tiguaq, or child—adopted child, more specifically. So, roughly, she was the Adopted Child of the Wolves. Amabuq-tiguaq. And she was the most hated person in town.

Everyone jeered at her as she passed, and ran through, and did her own business. She paid little mind to it, and kept on with her work, whatever it was. And she was always accompanied by her rag-tag team of dogs.

When she had been 11, someone had left a box of puppies out in the cold. All purebred dogs, of different breeds, the girl had taken them in and raised them. They became family, and you never saw them without one another. Where the dogs went, Amabuq-tiguaq went, and vice versa.

There was Stardancer, a husky if you ever saw one. Bright gray, with a white underbelly, she had beautiful blue eyes and a black mask around her eyes, which also ran down her nose. She was a great dog, very energetic and quite happy to be with the teenager she called master, be it side-by-side or pulling a sled.

Then there was Sedona. Sedona was a beautiful Akita, with a black and white mixed coat, interspersed with flashes of sable. Her eyes were glowing gold, and held a love and dominance that bespoke her breed. She was also thrilled with Amabuq, and was totally devoted to the teenager.

Those two were they only "Artic" dogs of the bunch. The rest were quite odd, especially to be seen in the harsh cold North.

Pearl, or Pearly, was a beautiful dog, but also very odd. As a greyhound, one wouldn't think she could survive in the harsh cold conditions of Alaska. Yet survive she did, and quite beautifully too. She had gold-yellow eyes that were constantly begging to be run, for she highlighted all the Greyhound breed was known for. Fast and with a love to run. Her coat was a myriad of color, so that she looked dark, despite not truly being one color. And she was made for sled running, even if her breed normally wouldn't be able to handle the cold, thin-furred as they were.

Lily was a whippet, and Pearly's best friend. Her coat was a golden-bronze and she too enjoyed running and sled-pulling. Her eyes were basically the same color as Pearl's and held a great love for the teenager who had raised her. She, too, somehow managed to survive Alaska, despite being thin-furred.

Lassie was a Rough Collie, who looked like her namesake, the famous collie from TV. She was as intelligent as her Famous counterpart, and looked just as beautiful, despite being female. (Lassie was really played by male collies, because the males supposedly had better coats.) Her coat allowed for a bit more realistic survival in the Artic. And she was a working dog through and through, although sled-pulling was a far cry from the herding her breed was created for, and normally used for.

Lycant was a Beautiful German Shepard, with deep soulful brown eyes. His coloring was interesting, as her was basically completely tan, save a black spot halfway down his back, that looked amazingly enough like a horse saddle, fit to put on his back. It even had the foot holds. Lycant was named for Lycanthropy, or werewolfism. He was a big lug who enjoyed doing whatever Amabuq commanded.

Fly was a black and white Border Collie that, like Lassie, enjoyed sled-pulling. She was odd-eyed, meaning that she had one blue eye and one brown. Despite this, she was a beautiful dog and completely loyal to Amabuq. She had not, contrary to popular belief, been named from the movie "Babe", as Amabuq had never seen it. She probably would've had she done though.

Finally, there was Perdita. She, like Lassie, derived her name from the movie 101 Dalmatians. She was, of course, a Dalmatian, with beautiful black spots and a white coat. Her ears even sported some spots. Her eyes were also brown, and full of the intelligence Dalmatians are known for. She, too, enjoyed pulling sleds and managed to somehow make it in the Artic, despite her type of coat.

All 8 dogs were loyal to only Amabuq, and very unforgiving of the townsfolk who ridiculed the teenager so horribly. They did not bite, per Amabuq's orders, but they wished they could. Or how they wished they could!

Presently, they were getting a pep talk from Amabuq, who spoke, not in human, but in dog. She knew very few human words, and could speak even less of those she did know. She pointed out to her team that this was not a race to win, but a race to prove a point to the dumb-witted humans who they were forced to mingle with. And they would go out there to prove it, regardless of what else the humans thought!

Pep talk done, Amabuq went to her post behind the sled, and waited for her time to go. Teenager and dogs ignored the leering and jeering crowd around them.

Meanwhile, her actions had not gone unnoticed. Jack Johnson had been watching her pace up and down her lines, checking and re checking her lines, and making sure she had everything ready to go. She barked and yapped at her team, who seemed to understand everything she was saying. Jack, known as Thunder Jack, wondered what Amabuq was attempting to prove, as he knew she certainly wasn't entering this race to win anything. If she was, then there was no race. The orphan hadn't noticed him watching her run her team, racing against invisible opponents. Jack was well-aware of her skills and knew full-well that a race would not be a problem. But only if she was running to win. And she was not. She didn't look it.

Jack sighed as he went back to his task of readying his own sled. He was defiantly getting a laugh when this thing started, if the townspeople were any indication. They were leering at her as they always did; obviously thinking that she was entering to win and her team wasn't even going to get past the first checkpoint. Well, they were wrong on both counts, and they would no doubt be a sight when Amabuq was allowed to take off. For that is what she would do. The orphan didn't start, didn't shoot off, she TOOK off. Like a rocket.

Jack was right. They DID provide some good beginning entertainment. The townspeople who'd cheered the Frenchman had taken off. Amabuq had gone second in the line-up and the crowd had gone from cheering to jeering. They booed her and hissed at her and everything else. Neither she, nor her dogs, paid any attention. Instead, they focused entirely on her task, or rather her dogs did, and her sharp wolf eyes focused intently on the hand that blocked her from doing what she and her team loved. It was rather scary, to tell the truth, and the fact that the dogs were working in almost harmony in making their own agitation knew was freaky. Of course, it would be nothing once they started.

The faces leering at Amabuq had quickly changed to shock, and Thunder Jack couldn't help the laughter that escaped him as the townsfolk went from mean and heartless to shocked beyond belief in .1 seconds. They looked like they had just been proved that heaven existed by actually seeing it, and it was hilarious. It was, however, the news crew that really got to Jack.

The new crew hadn't really taken to Amabuq either. They saw nothing but a teenager, dirty and not all that nice-looking, trying to win a major competition with the most rag-tag team of dogs you ever saw. Most weren't even cut out to be sled dogs, or even racing dogs of any kind. They really slandered her as they introduced her, as they had to, but changed their tune the minute the signal went off. The minute the hand went down, and Amabuq was allowed to run, she launched; and the team went from somewhat single minded individuals, to a single minded entity of perfect unison in sled dogs. Something most sledders thought impossible. Now they were singing heavenly praise for the girl, something short of "Hallahjuh."

Meanwhile, Ted Brooks, Miami dentist, born son of two major sledders, was watching all this on his TV at home. He had seen glimpses of the girl while in Tolketna, and had learned from Barb that she was essentially hated. He hadn't turned against her at that, but simply ignored her, as he had bigger things on his plate. He HAD seen her run her team once, and thought them fantastic, even despite his limited knowledge on the subject of mushing. He secretly hoped the girl survived the race, as she hadn't done anything to deserve death. Hadn't done anything to deserve hatred either, but that wasn't his problem. It was the townspeople's. So, he watched her start, and gave her a silent cheer. He was the only one.

Amabuq wasn't aware of the fate that awaited her as she ran. She quickly caught up with and out-distanced the Frenchman, who looked beyond shock as she did so, and then began to actually run with her dogs herself.

It was a very odd sight to anyone watching. She had gotten down on all fours and was loping along with the team, looking elated, and not seeming to care that she was going faster then she had any right to, both as a human and as a human in her position. The dogs didn't seem to mind the fact that their mistress and friend was running alongside them, and instead seemed to enjoy it. Just like all the other times they had run.

So started the race. Jack started, Ted discovered the hidden picture and realized that Jack, his father, had lied to him, and raced off to Tolketna once more. The Frenchman got fuller of himself by the minute, and Amabuq raced through, proving that she could survive, and that she wasn't all that she seemed. Proving that the town had named her correctly. She was the Adopted child of the Wolves. And this was her Pack, and they were made of tougher stuff then given credit for.

And in the woods and valleys that the racers traveled through, a pack of wolves howled promises made long ago to the only ones it mattered to. Promising to keep watch, to watch, and to listen, and support those who need supporting. But most of all, promising to be the family they had once been, and the family they would again become, to those who sorely needed one.

There. 5 pages, with included author's notes. Please note that Pearl and Lily are real dogs. Pearl used to be my greyhound and she used to race too, but she died some years ago form old age and heart complications. Lily is my paternal grandmother's whippet. The others are all dogs I wished I owned some with the names I would give them. (Particularly the ones named after famous dogs.) Others I created the names for. But all are breeds I wish to own at least at some point in my life. And I know such a team is not really realistic. I'm taking some liberties here, okay. This IS fanfiction after all, right?

P.S. Review

Ambiecat88


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